Engaged & Active Student Learning

Active & Team Based Learning

I use Active and Team Based Learning in my Composition Courses. Not only have these practices increased Attendance and Participation, student feedback indicates that Peer Reviews in this model were more enjoyable and produced some of the most valuable writing instruction. In other words, students were able to generate more and better feedback as a team than I have ever been able to do by myself as an instructor.

The Google Map Project is an Active & Team Based project that replaced a traditional essay assignment in Composition I. For more details on the assignment and examples of the work students produced & published on Google Maps, click here.

Instructional Technology

I have spent a lot of the past year learning and implementing new Instructional Technologies in the classroom. I regularly teach in the EASL (Engaged and Active Student Learning) Classrooms which has made using technology--especially the iPad and its numerous instructional applications--easy and meaningful for myself and my students. Now I am working to share what I've learned by creating an iPad Cohort for English faculty. I have secured 10 new iPads from the Provost for my colleagues and am designing a website to foster collaboration & share strategies.

Multi-Modal Annotated Bibliographies

In Comp II, students create ePortfolios to showcase their semester long inquiry based research projects and multi-modal artifacts produced along the way including an NPR style "This I Believe" audio essay and two annotated bibliographies built using Prezi. Student teams collaborated on the annotated bib using Prezi to learn the tools and methods of research required to complete the assignment on their own. After building the team Prezi and reviewing it as a class, individuals had to create their own. By having students do the project twice--once to learn and the second time to demonstrate their learning--everyone was able to meet the minimum project outcomes, while advanced students were able to distinguish themselves by integrating the background and presentation tools to demonstrate visually the relationships between their sources. The sophistication and style of the Prezi was strongly correlated with clarity of purpose and strong research making assessment easy, accurate, and formative.

Integrative Knowledge Portfolio Process

Another big change in the way I teach Composition is the implementation of an ePortfolio project in both Comp I and Comp II. In Comp I, I adapted and implemented the Integrative Knowledge Portfolio Process (IKPP) from Melissa R. Peet's original project design. Students used the ePortfolio tool in Canvas, Auburn's LMS. This project transforms the way students look at their college experience by giving them a systematic process to integrate their diverse learning experiences--both in and outside of the classroom. In Comp 1, students begin the semester by identifying their Short, Long, and Life Long Learning Goals and then connecting those to the Principles of Life Long Learning that have been central to their academic success and how those principles transfer to their non-academic learning experiences. Teams conduct Generative Knowledge Interviews to help each other surface and identify the Tacit Knowledge (i.e. "Street Smarts") and reflect on how it informs, aligns, or augments their Explicit Knowledge (i.e. "Book Smarts"). Early feedback from this project shows that students understand and appreciate being introduced to this process in their first semester at Auburn. I am conducting a longitudinal study to assess its longer term effects on Auburn undergraduates.

Photos and Student Work on this page used with permission.

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